Churchill began his career playing piano in cinemas at the age of 15. After dropping out of a California medical

school to pursue a career in music, he became accompanist at the Los Angeles radio station KNX (AM) in 1924.

He joined Disney six years later in 1930 - working on numerous shorts. In 1937, he was chosen to score Disney's

first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (for which he received an Oscar nomination). Churchill's music can also be heard in Peter Pan, Dumbo, and Bambi. Some of his best known songs include

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?," "Whistle While You Work," and "Some Day My Prince Will Come."

1922:

Actor John Anderson, the voice of Mark Twain and Franklin Delano

Roosevelt for Epcot's American Adventure attraction, is born in Clayton, Illinois.

Anderson also played an eccentric farmer who jealously guards his prize watermelon in "For the Love of

Willadean: A Taste of Melon," part of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

(A recurring Twilight Zone actor, he starred in four different episodes, "The Old Man in the Cave", "Of Late I

Think of Cliffordville", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", and "A Passage for Trumpet".)

1924:

Disney's Alice Comedy, Alice Gets in Dutch (starring Virginia Davis) is shown at the Piccadilly Theatre on Broadway in New York City. It is the first

time an Alice Comedy is screened in a first-run Broadway theater.

1935:

Actor Jerry Orbach, the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the

Beast, is born in The Bronx, New York. He also voiced the candlestick for Beauty

and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World. Orbach supplied the voice of Sa'luk in the

1995 Aladdin and the King of Thieves and appeared on such Touchstone sitcoms as Empty Nest and The Golden

Girls. (A Tony Award-winning actor, he was best known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law &

Order television series and as the father in the 1987 feature film Dirty Dancing.)

1955:

Ten time Academy Award-nominated film score composer Thomas Newman is

born in Los Angeles, California. His Disney credits include Finding Nemo and WALL-E.

(Newman's cousin is singer-songwriter Randy Newman.)

The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Circus Day.

1963:

A groundbreaking ceremony for the first Hollywood Museum takes place. Present

are Rosalind Russell, Jack Warner, Gene Autry, and Walt Disney. (The museum will

never be built.)

The TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs "The Wahoo Bobcat."

This episode is based on author Joseph Wharton Lippincott's 1950 story about a nine-year-old boy and a wild

bobcat who establish a strange friendship that endures through seasons of drought, forest fire and flood.

1965:

As Disney has secretly purchased much of the land

needed to build a new Florida theme park/resort,

news of the project is leaked to the Orlando Sentinel.

1997:

Disney Channel debuts Bear in the Big Blue House, a new series produced by

The Jim Henson Company. The show centers on Bear, a curious brown bear with a good sense of

smell, who lives in the Big Blue House with his friends Ojo, Tutter, Treelo, Pip, and Pop. (In 2004, The Jim

Henson Company sold the Bear in the Big Blue House franchise to The Walt Disney Company.)

1998:

Disney's The Lion King II: Simba's Pride has its world premiere at the Wadsworth

Theater in Los Angeles. A sequel to the 1994 film The Lion King, it is actually a direct-to-video release.

2006:

The Disney Channel Original Movie Return to Halloweentown premieres.

The fourth and final film in the Halloweentown series, it stars Sara Paxton and Joey Zimmerman as siblings

who attend Witch University. Veteran actress Debbie Reynolds returns to the role of Splendora Agatha

"Aggie" Cromwell.

The Perry Meridian High School Marching Falcons band from Indiana perform

on Disney World's Main Street as part of Disney's Magic Music Days.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is generally re-released in Disney Digital 3D

(the first time an analog 2D film has totally been turned into a digital 3D film).

Touchstone Pictures releases the mystery thriller The Prestige. Set in early 20th

century London, the film tells the story of two rival magicians (played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale)

who are obsessed with creating the best stage illusion. (The film will earn $14,801,808 on opening weekend